Ubuntu and its alliterative, animal themes, are the first thing that comes to our minds when we think of noticeable nomenclatures used by developers — in place of boring, old-fashioned numbers — to label significant releases. More recently they’ve released Lucid Lynx, Maverick Meerkat, and Natty Narwhal. As I write this they are working on the Oneiric Ocelot release.

1. Clever release names for creative developers
Ubuntu and its alliterative, animal themes, are the first thing that
comes to our minds when we think of noticeable nomenclatures used
by developers — in place of boring, old-fashioned numbers — to label
significant releases. More recently they’ve released Lucid Lynx,
Maverick Meerkat, and Natty Narwhal. As I write this they are working
on the Oneiric Ocelot release.

2. Other developers have joined in the fun as well. Android has made
headlines with Froyo, Gingerbread, and Honeycomb, and has
announced the next major version will be dubbed Ice Cream Sandwich.
Apple is running through the list their list of furry Felidae with Tiger,
Leopard and Snow Leopard. The list of lists goes on, as many
companies, some memorable, some not (did someone say Chicago?),
affix clever code names to their releases.

3. Why replace a perfectly good numbering
system with offbeat words? What’s
wrong with 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 and so on?
It’s boring. That’s what’s wrong.
Assigning fun and imaginative names to
your releases does two things. One, it
gets your customers excited about your
next release. It get’s them involved in a
way that numbering conventions can’t
do. As consumers, we love talking about
when Honeycomb is going to mature and
take over the tablet world. We anxiously
await the release of Apple’s Lion update.
Sequence-based Identifiers

4. Alt.boring
As developers, naming releases grants us
collective ownership, and boosts our
morale by making everyone part of
something. We don’t want to be talking
about releases in numbers, they’re too
corporate-esque. We want to speak in
code, with intrigue, over lunch or drinks
at happy hour. And when the launch
arrives, the quirky release names
transmogrify into even quirkier release
parties, complete with themed DIY
decorations and music. Alt.boring
becomes alt.fun.

5. Creating our own theme for release names
The team here at Intervals recently
decided we, too, were through with
using boring old numbers to internally
keep track of our releases. Numerical
releases don’t lend themselves well to
web-based software because of our
agile and iterative development cycle.
We are constantly pushing up new code,
tweaking and fine tuning our online
project management software. We
needed something inspiring, nostalgic,
and entertaining, before our brains
became card catalogs filled with
decimal-pocked releases.

6. Creating our own theme for release names
Giving our releases more relevant and personable names would
give us more wiggle room, more leeway in pushing up iterative
changes after a major release. That’s why we came up with a
naming convention for major releases based on our collective
childhood experiences with console video game systems. There
was only one console for us… the infamous 8-bit video game
console known as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
Yeah, the one with the big gray cartridges that you had to blow on
to clear the dust, the video console that came with a gun that
neither parents nor media seemed to notice, and what was up
with balancing gyros on that useless robot’s arms? That NES.

7. That useless robot has a name… it’s R.O.B.!
But don’t expect any upcoming releases from us
named Gyromite. The NES had plenty more games
available to play, more than I had realized, more
than enough to creatively label each Intervals
release. Everyone here has bought in to the NES
theme and we’ve already gone through a few
releases with the new naming convention. We
started with Contra, then moved on to Double
Dragon, and now we’re working on our Excitebike
release. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a while
before we get to my personal favorite, Metroid.
I suppose now we’ll have to go out and get us
some NES belt buckles ;)

8. Check out the Intervals blog for more articles…
The Intervals Blog
A collection of useful tips, tales and opinions based on decades of
collective experience designing and developing web sites and web-
based applications.
www.myintervals.com/blog
Photo credits:
sskennel (solitaire)
crazyoctopus (Nintento Entertainment System)
Velo Steve (Wheel)